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This should be far more secure and privacy friendly than a Sim card of a cellular connection. Why isn't this done more often? What are the Pros and Cons. I bet the price is similar as well.

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[-] Majestic@lemmy.ml 27 points 1 day ago

Cons:

You absolutely cannot get 2FA authenticator codes from 90% of services. Many services that require a phone number even without 2FA just for "verify you're a human" or because they want your data or to verify region use shortcode services that also will not work with ANY VOIP provider.

You will not receive their codes. These companies vary from banking institutions to gaming companies to online shopping marketplaces and stores to a Google account (used to be you could get an automated phone call to verify an account, not anymore, must be able to receive SMS from shortcodes that are disabled for VOIP numbers to register and to recover an account) just about anyone you could end up doing business with.

A shockingly large amount of companies demand phone numbers and send verification texts before allowing you to do business with them, to create an account, to recover an account, to delete an account, to place an order, etc.

They really shouldn't, it's a bad security practice but companies love it because with a phone number they can lower support costs by just allowing people to do a self-service where they get an automated text and can unlock their locked account. They also love harvesting that data and preventing anonymization with VOIP numbers and the reduction of fraud and increase of reliable KYC that comes with requiring them.

And they all take it as a given that EVERYONE or at least 99% have a cell plan with a non-VOIP number that works with these and the 1% who don't they don't care about in the developed world and are an acceptable loss.

[-] JustEnoughDucks@feddit.nl 5 points 1 day ago

90% of American commercial services that is.

Online services or many/most European services have more proper 2FA (TOTP, app-based, card reader OTP, etc...)

[-] delirious_owl@discuss.online 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 12 hours ago)

Can you name me an EU bank that doesn't demand a phone number to signup?

Unfortunately, PSD2 doesn't support TOTP and other strong 2FA solutions, so they all appear to require phone numbers. This is one area where EU is worse than US

[-] JustEnoughDucks@feddit.nl 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

That is a completely separate issue from the above commenter.

You absolutely cannot get 2FA authenticator codes from 90% of services

A shockingly large amount of companies demand phone numbers and send verification texts before allowing you to do business with them, to create an account, to recover an account, to delete an account, to place an order, etc.

They really shouldn’t, it’s a bad security practice but companies love it because with a phone number they can lower support costs by just allowing people to do a self-service where they get an automated text and can unlock their locked account.

Also an issue, but indeed a separate issue from using unsecure SMS as TOTP.

[-] delirious_owl@discuss.online 1 points 21 hours ago

I don't follow. Banks are required to use insecure SMS for OTPs by PSD2

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this post was submitted on 19 Sep 2024
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